Polygon submits revised Riverfront plans that try to reshape suburbiaEVERETT - Homebuilder Polygon Northwest modified its plans for the Riverfront Development in new sketches released last week.
The new sketches include graphics revealing the layout of two neighborhoods and show a suggested plan for the commercial development in the center of the almost 100-acre site in north Lowell.
The material is online at the city’s “Riverfront Redevelopment” webpage. Click on the links on the right hand side. The city’s main website is www.everettwa.org.
The planning commission will discuss the plan at a Tuesday, Feb. 11 special meeting at 3002 Wetmore Ave. The location for commission meetings moved because they will be televised on Everett TV.
In revised plans, Polygon is agreeing to bring back private alleyways, consider shared driveways and change the look of the neighborhood
Polygon also is bringing back the “central park” park concept in the sketches.
Many of the houses will be angled to avoid a “straight row” appearance from the street, and the plans seem to add many more townhomes, although that is unclear from the graphics.
Up to 5 percent of the houses on the Simpson pad would be in culdesacs.
The Simpson pad may have a different number than the originally proposed 223 residences on the site. There are 201 plots on the site in the revised plans.
The plans also eliminate Polygon’s request for just single-family homes on the Simpson pad.
Residents and city officials criticized the site plan as an unwanted vanilla subdivision. Garages off to the side of the houses are an important step in avoiding that appearance and is a change some commissioners specifically requested.
“The use of non-front loading garages maintains a more attractive streetscape, since garage doors and driveway-aprons are de-emphasized or hidden, helping to create a neighborhood that feels more like a place for people than a place for cars,” planners wrote in a report connected to the plans.
The Simpson pad is west of the main interchange off of 41st Street.
The Eclipse pad, east of the main interchange, is keeping its plan for townhomes.
Details on the commercial section, called the Landfill pad because it's where the 1984 tire fire happened, are unclear.
Polygon representatives said previously they want to solidify anchor commercial tenants to the site before drawing up the map.